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MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 

(0^ra Cornell. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED IN LIBRARY HALL, 



January nth, iSy^, 



<< 



FOUNDER'S DAY." 



IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



y^ 



€]Xo, ai0rnell. 



JFotmder of the Cornell University. 



%' 



BY RUFUS P: STEBBINS, 

Pastor of the First Unitarian Church. 




ITHACA : 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 

1875. 



\i 



Ix- 



■e,-i 






ORDER OF SERVICES ON FOUNDER'S DAY, 
JANUARY nth, 1875. 



Prayer, 
Rev. Theo. F. White, D. D. 



Memorial Address, 
Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, D. D. 



Founder's Hymn. 

Frank M. Finch, Esq., sung by the audience, a double quartette 

leading. 



Dismission. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Ithaca, Dec. 19, 1874. 
Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, D. D., 

Dear Sir : — The undersigned, Trustees of Cornell University, re- 
spectfully ask you to deliver an address in Library Hall, on the evening 
of Founder's Day, on the hfe and character of our lamented Founder, 

Ezra Cornell. 

John McGraw, 

J. B. Williams, 

Geo. W. Schuyler, 

J. H. Selkreg, 

F. M. Finch, 

S. D. Halliday. 



Ithaca, Dec. 21, 1874. 
Messrs. John McGraw, J. B. Williams, Geo. W. Schuyler, S. D. 

Halliday, J. H. Selkreg and F. M. Finch, Trustees of Cornell 

University : — 

Your letter of the 19th inst. is before me, inviting me "to deliver 
an address in Library Hall, on the evening of Founder's Day, on the 
Life and Character of our lamented Founder, Ezra Cornell." 

Some of you, if not all of you, are aware that it has been my most 
ardent desire that the President of the University should speak this word 
on that day ; and nothing could induce me to accept his and your in- 
vitation to do so but the knowledge that previous engagements ren- 
dered it impossible for him to do it, and that he would avail himself of 
another and more distant occasion to honor the memory of the departed. 

Gentlemen, I accept your invitation in the humble hope that I may 
be able to speak a word not entirely unworthy of the subject and the 
day. Very respectfully yours, 

RuFuc P. Stebbins. 



6 Correspondence. 

The Cornell University, President's Rooms, 

Ithaca, N. Y., June 29, 1875. 
Reverend and Dear Sir: — 

In behalf of the Trustees of the Cornell University, I have the 
honor to request of you for publication a copy of your address upon 
the life, character and services of the late Ezra Cornell, delivered on 
Founder's Day of the present year. 

I remain, very respectfully and truly yours, 

Andrew D. White, President, &:c. 
Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, D, D., Ithaca, N. Y. 



Clinton House, Ithaca, N. Y., July i, 1875. 
Hon. Andrew D. White, 

President of the Cornell University: — 
My Dear Sir: — I place at your disposal the MS. of my address 
upon the life and character of the late Ezra Cornell, founder and lover 
of our University, in the hope that it may not be wholly unworthy of 
his memory and that it may inspire other ardent souls to do likewise. 

Most truly yours, 

Rufus P. Stebbins. 
Hon. President White. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. Chairman^ Gentlemen of the Board of Trustees and Professors of 
the Cor7iell University, Members of the Corporation a?id Boa7'd of 
Trustees of Cornell Library Association, Students a?id Fellow Citi- 
zens : — 

The drapery at the entrance of this Hall and about it, this va- 
cant chair, wreathed with both crape and flowers, to symbolize not only 
the grief but the pleasant memories it awakens, and our own subdued 
feeling, — all announce the Day and the cause of our assembling. The 
day is " Founder's Day," which ceaseth from this time henceforth to be 
a day of salutation and becometh a day of Memorial. The cause of 
our assembling is to commemorate him. For the time has come in which 
we may freely speak our words of honor and gratitude. The flood of 
the first great grief which overwhelmed us all at the death of our hon- 
ored Founder and citizen has had time to subside. In the midst of its 
first overflow, no one felt either able or disposed to speak many words 
of our loss, or of his life and character. Tears, silence and hand-clasps 
were the tributes which were rendered on that great day of mourning. 
However much many of our citizens might have desired to hear just words 
of commemoration spoken, no tongue could be loosed on that day, the 
lips of all were silent. 

The sorrows, and griefs, and desolations of the bereaved household, 
also, demanded from us the opportunity to shed their tears in retirement, 
and to unite with a few chosen friends in the solemnities of that sad 
hour, in the privacy of their own home. Their choice was as impera- 



8 Memorial Address. 

tive as it was fitting. And this concession was gracefully made to the 
tender feelings of the household. What was permissible, in the pres- 
ence of such family grief, you did to express your sympathy with them, 
your love and honor for the departed. From the hour of his death to 
that of his burial, places of business and public buildings were draped 
in mourning ; flags were suspended at half-mast; resolutions were passed 
by the University, by the Cornell Library Association, by the Savings 
Bank, and by the authorities of the town, as well as by other organiza- 
tions, expressive of their great respect for the dead and sympathy for the 
family ; and on the day of the funeral, carriages from adjoining towns 
and extra trains on our railroads brought committees, chosen to repre- 
sent neighboring cities, and hundreds of others to express their own 
personal loss and sympathy. The solemn hour of the last sad rites 
came ; the doors of the places of business were closed, and tokens of 
bereavement and respect were seen everywhere. In the silence and 
amidst the tears of the bereaved household, in the sacred privacy of 
their home, such words were spoken and such prayers offered as in such 
a presence and amidst such grief the lips could utter. Few and broken 
indeed they were. Then the doors were opened and your opportunity, 
citizens, students, came. Such an ovation of silent respect was a wor- 
thy tribute, most worthy possible, to the Founder of the University and 
model citizen of the town. All spoken words seemed out of place — 
poor and unworthy. The multitudes, the order, the sobriety, the si- 
lence, the tears, were the best and only fitting tribute to the departed 
on that occasion. And when we left that tomb with a christian bene- 
diction, I cannot but think that we all felt " This is best; this is most 
befitting the occasion and the character ; this, the silent tribute of 
mourning thousands, is better, far better, than the voice of anyone, how- 
ever eloquent." And so it was. We each one returned to our homes 
with our memories full of what was best and loveliest in the life and 
character of our late fellow citizen and friend. And the deeds and 
words which we remembered were very precious. So closed the twelfth 
day of December, a day the like of which the eyes of this people had 
never beheld, the day of the funeral of our modest, yet eminent, fellow 
citizen, Ezra Cornell. 

The occasion for some suitable public word to be spoken was near at 



Ezra Cornell. 9 

hand. It has been the custom of our University from the beginning, to 
honor the day of its founder's birth by suspending its studies and devot- 
ing the evening to a reception, in the great parlors of Cascadilla. This 
day was the eleventh of January, and called Founder's Day. Almost 
too near the day of great grief to give time to prepare a suitable memo- 
rial, or to be in a state of mind to listen to a sketch of such a life. 
There was, however, but one opinion respecting the appropriateness of 
the occasion and the importance of improving it. The Executive Com- 
mittee and such members of the Board of Trustees of the University as 
could be consulted, immediately took action on the subject. As the 
day on which this address should be delivered was already appointed 
in the calendar of the University, so the man who should deliver it 
was already enrolled in its Register, its President, the Hon. Andrew D. 
White. To tTie deep regret of every one, but to none so much as to 
myself, an engagement from which he could not be released prevented 
his undertaking the work; and nothing could reconcile any of us to 
this disappointment, but the expectation that at some future time, prob- 
ably at the next Commencement, his ready pen, and eloquent lips, and 
intimate acquaintance with the subject will do eminent justice to our 
honored Founder's character. 

In acceptance of your public invitation, gentlemen, and his private 
urgent request, I stand before you this evening ; and I am sure I do 
not ask more than you will be willing to grant, when I beg that I may 
feel the support of your sympathy with my unenviable position as your 
President's substitute. 

Ezra Cornell, the upright man, the model citizen of whom I am to 
speak, was born in Westchester county, in this State, on the eleventh 
day of January, 1807. His parents were members of the Society of 
Friends, emigrants to this State from the south-eastern part of Massa- 
chusetts. Simplicity, industry, integrity, and economy are eminent 
characteristics of the members of this Society, and were his inheritance. 
He was the eldest of a family of eleven children and was heir to the 
labors, self-denials and sturdy discipline which the oldest child in so 
numerous a family inherits. The narrow circumstances of the house- 
hold rendered it necessary that every member should be a worker, and 
compelled to the strictest economy. Plain fare, plain clothing, hard 



10 Memorial Address. 

work were the watchwords of the family. EHjah Cornell, the father, was 
a man of more than ordinary education and industry, but so large a 
family made such demands upon hislabor as to keep him poor. Ezra's 
early life was, therefore, one of constant labor and few or no opportu- 
nities of rehef and amusement. His father gave him, as he did his 
other children, such instruction at home as he could snatch time for 
from his daily labors. He also taught school in the winter, gathering 
in such children as he conld induce to attend, for there were no free 
public schools in the State at that time, and by whose tuition he added 
something to the scanty income which he derived from his trade as a 
potter. Busy, caring for the smaller children to reHeve a faithful 
mother ; busy, helping his father in the shop ; busy, running of errands 
for both ; snatching a leisure moment in the evening to learn to read, 
and spending a few hours a day for a few days in the winter in his 
father's school ; envying, perhaps, the boys who did nothing, or had 
nothing to do, hunting and jEishing, unless these were too much like 
work to attract their attention ; clothed in coarse but substantial home- 
spun, strongest among the strong, most determined among the decided, 
young Cornell spent the first twelve years of his life. I see him as he 
was, the sturdy, the robust, the vigorous boy, defiant of storm and diffi- 
culty ; muscular, enduring, patient. 

In 1 8 19, when Ezra was twelve years old, his father removed his 
family to Madison county and settled in the town of De Ruyter. The 
country was then new, demandmg of its settlers hardihood and hard 
work. Fields were to be cleared of forests, and stumps torn from the 
ground. Felling trees and logging were no pastime. His father 
opened a pottery and carried on a farm. His boys were now a help 
and did much to aid in supporting the family. For seven years Ezra 
served his father with most devoted faithfulness, giving indications of 
that mechanical genius and taste which served him so well in after 
life. He was able to get snatches of schooling in the winter and 
improved the long evenings by reading in the chimney corner by fire- 
light such books as he could find in the neighborhood. It gave Mr. 
Cornell great pleasure to relate in after life the story of his last term of 
schooling whose tuition he and his brother paid for by slashing, log- 
ging, burning, and preparing for planting four acres of heavily wooded 



Ezra Cornell. II 

land. They did the work after school hours in two months, and he 
graduated without owing a cent when he was eighteen years old, a 
hardy, industrious, intelligent young man, with indomitable purpose, 
and high ambition. He knew what work was, and how to do it. He 
knew what money was, for he had earned it. He had learned that 
the secret of success is in what we keep fully as much as in what 
we get. No undertaking daunted him even now. His genius for 
mechanics was revealed in many ways, and he was fond of exam- 
ining and understanding all kinds of machinery. His father needed 
a new pottery and employed such a mechanic as the country fur- 
nished to build it. Ezra was set to work with him. Whether the 
ignorant carpenter was jealous of the developing taste Of young Cornell 
and wished to disgust him with the work, or whether it was a stupid 
blunder is not clear, but whether the one or the other, he put young 
Cornell to boring holes in the timber for framing with a two-inch 
auger ; — not such an auger as we have now, which enters the wood 
with ease and cuts its way as smoothly as a razor, but an old-fashioned 
two-inch auger which creaked, and cracked, and split, and shivered, 
and tore its desperate way into the timber, making its user steam like 
Sysiphus. Cornell, who had cleared with his brother four acres of forest 
in two months after school hours, was not to be driven from the work 
and a mastery of the business by a two-inch auger. He did the bor- 
ing and something more. He did the carpenter himself; for he soon 
caught him in an error in his laying out of the work, and barely escaped 
severe chastisement far calling attention to a mistake which would have 
seriously hindered the work or damaged the building, if not corrected. 
Thus early he learned that correcters of others' mistakes are heirs of the 
rod rather than of reward. That reformers are not popular. It makes 
little difference where you propose improvement or point out mistakes, 
whether in caucus or carpentry, morals or mechanics, the reward is the 
same. It was of small consequence to him, however, for in building 
the pottery he became a carpenter. He tried his hand at his new vo- 
cation at once. With his own hands he felled the timber, planned, and 
erected a two-story house for his father as his last work for one who 
had done so much for him by doing so little, for his father's narrow cir- 
cumstances had caused young Cornell to form habits of industry and 



12 • Memorial A ddrcss. 

severe economy, and to anticipate the day when he must rely upon his 
own resources, his own strong-arm, his own stronger will. 

Ezra Cornell was now nineteen years of age. The old home was 
full. He must take care of himself. At night-fall on one of the incle- 
ment days of our month of March — so runs the story — a stalwart 
young man of tanned'but expressive face, was seen striding across the 
muddy crossings and along the half-finished sidewalks of Syracuse, then 
only a village. He attracted attention by the steady swing of his tall 
frame as he walked, by his heavy boots all covered with mud, into the 
tops of which were tucked the coarse trowsers. He carried over his 
shoulder a rough stick_^on which was a small bundle tied in a handker- 
chief. Altogether a notable object. He made inquiries for a carpen- 
ter shop. He was directed to one. He engaged work. He had ten 
cents in his pocket as capital. That young man was Ezra Cornell. 
He, who became possessor of millions ; who projected and built rail- 
roads ; who, by his genius and labor, has spanned the continent with 
the telegraph; who has established our Public Library and founded 
our University, through whose influence and by whose graduates his 
name will be held in honor and gratitude to the last syllable of re- 
corded time. 

After working at his trade in Syracuse and towns adjacent for two 
years, Mr. Cornell came to this town. He was now twenty-one years 
of age. It was forty-six years ago. The place was but a hamlet. A 
few houses here and there crowded at the foot of east and south hill, 
only two more north of Cascadilla Creek. Some men of enterprise had 
already located here and Mr. James S. Beebe had a flour mill at Fall 
Creek, and Mr. Otis Eddy had a cotton factory at Cascadilla Place. 
By these two men Mr. Cornell was employed for twelve years, continu- 
ing with Mr. Beebe ten. He was engaged in machine shops^ in build- 
ing mills, in erecting dams, and blasting tunnels to convey the water to 
the machinery, and did over-work in six months to the extent of add- 
ing one month to his wages, and that too when twelve hours was de- 
manded for a day's work. 

In 1 83 1, after a residence of three years in our town, he married, and 
since that time his home has been among our homes, and he has been 
an active citizen of the town. 



Ezra Cornell. 13 

In 1840 Mr. Cornell became interested in farming and did much to 
awaken interest in the subject of Agriculture, and by importation of 
choice stock greatly improved the breed of cattle in the county and 
State; and when President of the State Society in 1862, he was sent as 
a delegate to the Royal Agricultural Exhibition in London. He de- 
voted himself to the study of the English methods of farming and 
brought home much useful information. But the great work of his life 
by which he made his fortune was the establishment of lines of tele- 
graph. Not that he neglected other interests^ and the promotion of 
various industries, for he took into his heart, and, by word or work or 
money, hailed or assisted every new invention to relieve wearied mus- 
cles and increase production, thus cheapening the price of commodities 
and reducing luxuries to conveniences. An improvement in the plow, 
— emperor among tools, and till within a few years, shabbiest and 
poorest of all the imperial race, — sent him abroad among the farmers 
and mechanics of the Eastern States to introduce the new implement to 
his fellow yeomanry. Extending his journey to the State of Maine he 
met the Hon. F. O. J. Smith, a farmer and member of Congress, who 
was interested in tbe magnetic telegraph then recently invented by 
Professor S. F. B. Morse, but whose value and practicability for long 
distances had not been tested, and was not admitted by many of the 
most eminent scientists and practical engineers of the day. Experi- 
ments had been made with it for only short distances, and some of these 
had failed through the imperfection of the apparatus. If the invention 
was a success, if it should be found possible to send messages in the 
twinkling of an eye from Washington to Philadelphia and New York 
and on to Boston and Charleston, the fame and the fortune of the in- 
ventors would be made ; the world would resound with their praise ; 
and all mankind would become neighbors. The morning and the 
evening would clasp hands. 

The enthusiasm, the mechanical genius, the indomitable energy of 
Mr. Cornell at once attracted the confidence of Mr. Smith, and it was 
not difficult for him to persuade him to join in the new, and to most 
persons insane, enterprise. Mr. Cornell left the plow to the care of 
the oxen and entered upon the construction of a highway for the light- 
ning. 



1 4 Memorial A ddress. 

It was just the undertaking to enlist all the nature of our late fellow 
citizen. It demanded his daring, his disregard of obstacles, his defi- 
ance of impossibilities. His genius foresaw success and predicted it. 
His assurance and enthusiasm, inspired and confirmed others. 

The great want was capital to construct a line of sufficient length to 
test the value of the invention as a means of communication between 
the cities of the country. Private capital peremptorily refused its aid, 
and what could Smith and Morse andTCornell do with their empty 
purses ? They had sent messages round^the city exchange in New 
York and up and down Broadway ; they had visited Washington, and 
sent messages from the Capitol to the White House, two miles; but 
what was this success compared with that of sending to Baltimore, the 
nearest city, a distance of forty miles ? Scientists of eminence affirmed 
that no battery could be constructed of sufficient power to generate 
sufficient electricity for the purpose, or if so, that no wire could be man- 
ufactured which would carry the fluid without melting ; or, if both 
should prove possible, that the expense of the apparatus and the line of 
wire would be so great that it could never be used as a means of com- 
munication. 

Every thing failed these men but faith. Messages could be carried 
to Baltimore and should be carried there. The can of possibility should 
become the is of reality. They appHed to Congress for thirty thousand 
dollars to aid them in trying the experiment between Washington and 
Baltimore. If this experiment should succeed, then by forty or fifty 
mile relays they could extend the wires to Philadelphia, and New York, 
and Boston, and south to Richmond, Wilmington, Charleston and Sa- 
vannah, and glory would cover them and those who voted for the ap- 
propriation. If they should fail they would become a hissing and a by- 
word, and their supporters in congress would lose their re-election. After 
running the gauntlet of the sneers of many honorable gentlemen, both 
in the House and in the Senate, who knew even less of electricity than 
they did of legislation, and after numerous failures, the appropriation 
was carried. 

Now for the great experiment. It was agreed to insulate the wires 
in lead pipe laid two feet, more or less, umder ground, in accordance 
with Mr. Cornell's suggestion, as the wires would be more secure from 



Ezra Cornell, 15 

casualties than if suspended in the air. Mr. Smith took the contract 
for laying the pipe, but gave it up after a brief trial because the expense 
exceeded the compensation. 

Mr. Cornell came to the rescue; invented a machine which was both 
cart and plow, to which a drum was attached on which the lead pipe^ 
containing the insulated wire, was coiled ; and then attaching a team 
of eight or ten mules, a trench was cut of the required depth, the wire 
laid, and the trench filled. Success was smiling on the work. Ten 
miles of pipe were laid from Baltimore to the Relay House, at one-tenth 
of the cost of the Smith contracts. Ten miles of wire out; now for a 
trial. The instruments were arranged privately and the key touched at 
Baltimore. Expectancy was on tip-toe, and heart-beats were louder 
than voices. No response came from the Relay House. No message 
was received there. The whole invention was a failure or their insula- 
tion was insufficient ; which ? This was the crucial question. The fail- 
ure must not be known. Some money and an abundance of faith were 
yet left. Other methods must be tried. But how keep the failure a 
secret while other methods of insulation were tried ? Mr. Cornell again 
came to the rescue. He made the anomalous plow and he knew how 
to repair it should it need repairs. He ordered the negroes, so the le- 
gend runs, to start up the mules at a sharp gait, and as they were pass- 
ing a rocky place he so directed its nose that the whole machine was 
not only put out of countenance, but fell in pieces on the spot. This 
accident necessarily caused delay ; and delay gave opportunity for ex- 
periment. It was improved ; and after more experiments and due de- 
liberation it was decided that poles should be erected by the road-side, 
and that the wires should be insulated where they were attached to these 
poles, ten or fifteen feet above the ground. The insulation was found 
to be satisfactory ; and under the appointment of Assistant Superinten- 
dent of the telegraph by the Hon. John C. Spencer, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, Mr. Cornel] pushed the work to completion in the Spring of 
1844. The poles were set, the wires suspended, and messages passed 
between the cities of Baltimore and Washington, to the astonishment 
of all and to the utter confusion of the faithless and unbelieving; and 
those Members of Congress who had scouted the enterprise and opposed 
the appropriation, in their speeches for Buncombe, passed by the citizens 



1 6 Memorial A ddress. 

on the other side for quite other reasons than those which induced the 
Priest and Levite to give a wide berth to the robbed travel er. 

Messages could be sent forty miles. This was proved. Could they 
be sent in sufficient numbers to compensate for the outlay ? This was 
the next question. It was found that Morse's telegraph instrument was 
not suitable for long lines ; and once more Mr. Cornell made a study 
of improving it, and succeeded so perfectly that his improvement, as I 
am informed, is now in use in combination with the original Morse in- 
strument. 

From this time for several years Mr. Cornell was engaged in putting 
up telegraph lines all over the country and in Canada. So thoroughly 
had he mastered the business that he made largely on his contracts and 
was able to subscribe largely for stock when it was worth but little; 
and at last had the. advantage of its great advance in the market. 

During this period of nearly twenty years Mr. Cornell was a terrible 
worker, with both hands and brains. He rode nights and worked by 
day. He hesitated at no exposure. In storm, and frost, and heat he 
was on the spot and hard at work. The wiry vigor of his boyhood and 
early manhood was submitted to the severest test. Probably no toiler 
in the Stygian blackness of the coal mines of Pennsylvania ; no smelter 
amidst the roaring iron furnaces of Pittsburg; no slave in the steaming 
rice fields of South Carolina, was a harder worker than Ezra Cornell ; 
nor for a portion of this time was there one of them poorer. Like the 
heroes of old he lived by faith. Though his integrity was without spot, 
men do not do business on integrity, but on money; and while his for- 
tune was in expectancy those who had not like precious faith with him- 
self chose silver to scrip and cash to credit ; and he often found the 
way of life hard, and rough, and dark, and the wolf howled on the 
threshold of his humble home continually. But he had been blessed 
with a discipline in boyhood and youth which enabled him to suffer 
and be strong; nay, even to relish the narrow competency which the 
present hour churlishly furnished, m the assurance that fortune was not 
distant; and he was not mistaken. The morning was dawning; the 
day indeed had come. A fortune was his, and he understpod that it 
was his for use not for hoarding ; for the advancement of knowledge 
and virtue among his fellow citizens and mankind, and not to gratify 
personal pride and vanity. 



Ezra Cornell. ly 

And now there opens up to us in all its sdVene magnificence the 
crowning work and supreme glory of Mr. Cornell's life, in which we 
see, as in a shadow, it is true, the eminent excellence of his character, 
his broad philanthropy, his far forecast, his estimate of what was noblest 
and best for man and his fellow citizens, and for his country in par- 
ticular. 

His ambition and his fortune at first inspired and justified him in 
founding a Free Public Library, and the erection of this Library Hall 
and the incorporation of the Cornell Library Association. As he pro- 
jected it, an institution of learning was to be founded, including choice 
works of art to educate the taste, choice volumes of science and an- 
tiquities to illustrate nature and history ; the ablest and latest writings 
of the most renowned scholars in all departments of knowledge to in- 
spire ambition ; reading rooms were to be opened for gentlemen and 
ladies, suppfied with the best periodical literature to gratify the most 
cultivated taste, and to form such a taste in those unfortunately destitute 
of it ; and, as if the memory of his early years was fresh to him as the 
morning, he suggests that a " room be appropriated to the use of the 
younger gentlemen, say from ten or twelve to eighteen years of age," 
thus enticing them from the temptations of the street, and rewarding 
them with the comforts, and instruction, and recreations of a hall of 
their own. His love of agriculture, and his desire to raise it to its due 
place among the vocations or professions of life, prompted him to finish 
a commodious room for the use of the Ithaca Farmer's Club, for which 
he supposed they would " pay a reasonable rent," as well as the "Ithaca 
Historical Society," for their equally commodious and well Hghted 
rooms. The alcoves of the Library would hold thirty thousand vol- 
umes. He intended at first to place fifteen thousand volumes upon the 
shelves and he supposed that the rental of the other rooms in the build- 
ing would not only pay for its care but furnish a surplus from which 
the Library could be replenished and the reading rooms sustained. If 
was further hoped that courses of lectures to be delivered in the large 
Lecture Room would not only be a source of instruction to the citizens 
of the town but also a source of revenue to the Library. The Trustees 
of this munificent gift were taken from the ministers of the different de- 
nominations in the town, and from different departments in the civil 



1 8 Memorial Address. 

service, representing as he said, "as nearly as possible all classes and 
interests." 

This building, erected for such worthy ends and with a generous out- 
lay of about seventy thousand dollars, was dedicated with impressive 
ceremonies in the presence of an immense audience on the 20th of 
December, 1866. In his address on that occasion Mr. Cornell stated 
that he had modified somewhat his original plan, and proposed to place 
only three thousand volumes in the Library at its opening, and to follow 
this gift with a thousand volumes a year till the original number of fif- 
teen thousand volumes was reached. This plan would have been 
better for the Library had it been accomplished than the other, for it 
would have filled the alcoves with the new and fresh literature of the 
day in all its departments, instead of crowding their shelves with the 
obsolete writings of past ages, which University Libraries should secure 
and preserve. 

In presenting the keys of the building and the trust deed of the 
property to the Trustees, Mr. Cornell said," I must express the hope, 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, that your administration of this trust 
will be so impartial, so wise, and so just, that a truthful history of it, 
which should at all times be found in your records, will stand as a last- 
ing monument to your honor through all time. Mr. Chairman, I now 
' present to you the deed of the property and the keys of the edifice. 
And may God bless the enterprise and make it fruitful to this people in 
Jznowledge, truth and virtue'"' 

If in any respects the intentions of the donor and the anticipations of 
the citizens have not been answered, the cause, as will soon appear, is 
not far to seek and one of highest honor. From the inception of the 
plan in 1862 to its completion at the close of 1866, was a period of 
over four years. Property had increased, in nominal value at least, im- 
mensely, Mr. Cornell's especially. He was a member of the Assembly 
or Senate during this period, and became deeply interested in the ar- 
rangements to be made for an Agricultural State College, or a school 
of civil engineering and practical mechanics. The national grant of a 
million acres of land to the State to aid in founding a college or uni- 
versity of that class was to be obtained. Mr. Cornell was at that time 
considering what disposal to make of half a million of dollars which 



Ezra Cornell. 19 

he wished to consecrate to the good of his fellow citizens and of the 
race. He offered it to the State to aid in founding a University worthy 
of its origin and endowment. 

He wished " to place at the disposal of the industrial classes of soci- 
ety the best facilities for the acquirement of practical knowledge and 
mental culture on such terms as the limited means of the most humble 
can command; to found an institution which will prove highly benefi- 
cial to the poor young men and poor young women of the country." 
Nor did he desire to promote the interests of mining, and farming, and 
engineering, and manufacturing, and geology, and zoology, only. Man 
is greater than his works ; so thought Mr. Cornell. " I desire," he says, 
'' to found an institution which shall make men more truthful, more 
honest, more virtuous, more noble, more manly ; which shall give them 
higher purposes and more lofty aims, qualifying them to serve their 
fellow men better, preparmg them to serve society better, training them 
to be more useful in their relations to the State and to better compre- 
hend their higher and holier relations to their families and their God. It 
shall be our aim and our constant effort," he says, '' to make true Chris- 
tian men, without dwarfing or paring them down to fit the narrow guage 
of any sect." A grander purpose, where was it ever formed ? A 
broader foundation, where was it ever laid ? Labor, knowledge, char- 
acter! But the greatest of these is character. To form this, true Chris- 
tian manliness should therefore be the supreme ambition of every 
teacher, of every student in Cornell. Yes, Christian manhood, this is 
the great, this is the supreme qualification for teacher and aim of pupil, 
for though they speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and un- 
derstand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not true Christian 
manliness, they are nothing^sounding brass, tinkling cymbals ! 

I will not detain you by narrating the difficulties, the vexation, the 
delays, the suspicions, the jealousies, the calumnies which obstructed the 
completion of the enterprise and poisoned the air. Mr. Cornell loved 
the University as his child. The difficulties attending its foundation 
and endowment were enormous, and would have crushed any other 
man's strength or filled any other man's bosom with disgust. He faced 
and bore them all with the calmness of assurance, and the firmness of 
fate. Tens, fifties, hundreds of thousands of dollars beyond his origi- 



20 Memorial Address. 

nal purpose were needed, and given. His purse was .depleted, his 
credit pledged, till those who knew him best and loved him most, and 
stood in awe at the lavishment of his princely fortune on the University, 
feared that the charge of being an infidel, so repeatedly and bitterly 
made by men who knew not what his disinterestedness was, and never 
enjoyed the luxury of beneficence without bigotry, would indeed prove 
to be true ; not, by any means, because he did not serve his God, nor 
because he did not love his fellow man, but because he would ^^ fail to pro- 
vide for his own household,''^ a fearful style of infidelity as afiirmed by 
the great apostle. 

But none of these things moved him. A million acres of wild land 
to locate and sell ; three quarters of a million of dollars to pay out of 
his own estate, and more called for ; other men to interest in the Uni- . 
versity who could help carry the enormous load and make the grand 
beginning a grander consummation, all this, in addition to the wise man- 
agement of his own complicated and increasing business, which would 
have made any ordinary head swim, any ordinary brain dizzy, any or- 
dinary constitution a wreck, Mr. Cornell took up, and bore to a trium- 
phant conclusion, as steadily and firmly as Sampson bore the mighty 
gates of Gaza up to Hebron. Heroic worker! patient endurer! inex- 
haustible giver ! honored citizen ! Well might'st thou prefer the greater 
to the less, the endowment of a University which shall give our village 
world-wide renown, and an accessible library of tens of thousands of 
volumes, and every one of her sons and daughters the opportunity of 
the highest education, and bring to her coffers annually a quarter of a 
million dollars, to the addition of twelve thousand volumes more to our 
library at the dedication of this building. For when this dedication 
took place INIr. Cornell had pledged his fortune and honor to found a 
University here, which he purposed should be second to none in the 
State or in the country. 

The burden of this magnificent work was on his shoulders when, on 
Dedication day, he gave us this Hall. Head, heart, hands, were full. 
The State, the country, was on the watch ; one misstep and the whole 
pack of envious, jealous, suspicious rivals, would tear the air with their 
bowlings. He knew it, he felt it. He would secure the University 
when he jnust. He would accomplish his intentions respecting the Li- 



Ezra Cornell. ■ 21 

brary when he could. His purpose was not changed. Time, in 
whose influence he so often trusted, would give opportunity to con- 
summate his plan. He never lost sight of it. He struggled to ac- 
complish it ; but his sympathizing heart was drawn for the time in 
other directions. His strong hand was sought in other enterprises 
to benefit the town and render it not only worthy of being the 
seat of a great University, but a place of business worthy of his own 
ambition and that of his fellow citizens. 

While wrestling with a giant's strength with the financial problems of 
the Universitv, he took upon his shoulders the burden of two railroads 
trembling upon the verge of bankruptcy, that he might, if possible, save 
them for the interests of the town, for it was evident they never could 
promote his owm. What daring in enterprise ! What burdens of re- 
sponsibility ! A million dollars given to our University ! Time, labor, 
anxiety inconceivable, given, and a fortune pledged to wisely sell a 
half million acres of land yet undisposed of! Sleeping in cars or not 
sleeping at all, to gain the day for promoting the interest of the Uni- 
versity, or the railroads, whose interest was the public's and not his 
own ! Arranging for iron furnaces and glass works to increase the 
business of the village ! Reducing his own expenses to the lowest 
terms that he might aid poor students through their course of study ! 
Adopting every means of raising funds, which prudence and even 
daring could suggest that the funds of the University might await a 
good investment or its estate a good market, by pledging his own as 
security ! Amazing and filling with deepest anxiety his best friends at 
his utter self-abandonment and forgetfulness of his own interests in the 
promotion of those of the public, and of the University in particular. 
It was when stooping under such a burden, thus fainting under accu- 
mulating labors for the benefit of mankind, that in the high place of 
legislation of his own State, for whose glory he was wasting his blood 
drop by drop, the serpent's hiss was heard, the serpent's rattle sprung ! 
This Ezra Cornell, who had almost forgotten his household, and who 
had entirely forgotten himself in his zeal for the University, in devotion 
to others, was charged with selfishness and fortune-hunting ! A man 
was found sufficiently incapable of appreciating true nobility and disin- 
terestedness of character to charge one of "the most unselfish and disin- 



22 Mcviorial Address. 

terested men God ever made" with the purpose of aggrandizing his 
fortune at the expense of the University which he had founded! Base 
as was the accusation, it was well that it was made : not well for the 
maker, but for Mr. Cornell, for the University, and for the public. For 
when the furnace had been heated seven times hotter than it was wont 
to be heated, the victim of this cruel calumny walked into it with calm- 
ness and self-reliance ; and came out of it, not only without a smell of 
fire on his garments, but in new robes of spotless whiteness, and with the 
same calm features of stainless integrity with which he crossed its flam- 
ing threshold. 

These cares, and burdens, and disappointments would seem to have 
been sufficient for any shoulders, however Herculean, to bear; for any 
patience, however inexhaustible, to endure. But more and worse was 
the portion of Mr. Cornell. The interests of the University were to 
him supreme. His great ambition was to so locate and dispose of 
its lands as to give it a foundation surpassing in value that of any other 
institution in this nation, if not on this continent. He found that the 
person employed to locate these precious lands had grievously disap- 
pointed him, caring nothing for the lands but for the loaves, trusting 
these vital interests of the University, amounting to milHons of dollars, 
to a third person, without the knowledge of Mr. Cornell; a person who 
cared nothing for the University and was satisfied if he could only get 
his per cent.; knowing not whether he had located the lands in spruce 
swamps, or under water, or in choice pine forests. Mr. Cornell sup- 
posed, in the confidence of his upright, unsuspecting heart, that his be- 
loved University was enriched past all need and rivalship. But when 
those lands were offered for sale it was found that the grossest careless- 
ness had been indulged, not to say fraud perpetrated, in their location, 
and it was reasonably feared that the expected millions would be 
greatly if not fearfully diminished. Such a blow at such a time would 
have stunned any other man. Something must be done. The un- 
worthy agent was dismissed. And then, like the serpent in the fable, 
warmed to life in the bosom of its benefactor, he revenged himself on 
his principal by commencing a suit for payment of an extortionate sum 
for such injurious services, for doing what inefficiency and imcompe- 
tency could to destroy or diminish the funds of the University. Trial 



Ezra Cornell. 23 

after trial had taken place. Mr. Cornell stood with his personal integ- 
rity and private fortune between the extortioner and his beloved institu- 
tion, to which he had pledged his life, his fortune and his honor. He 
watched, he fasted, he traveled night and day, struggling in every pos- 
sible manner to keep the funds of the University secure, and pouring out 
his own like water to meet emergencies which were not anticipated, 
stooping, almost reelmg under the burden. Still no murmur escaped his 
lips, he brought no railing accusation against his unworthy agent, but 
rather grew calmer as the storm grew fiercer, and firmer as all others 
were trembling.* And just now, in this fearful strain of mind, and 
heart, and fortune, the typhoon of the great panic struck the commer- 
cial world, and fortunes went down before it as ships go down in the 
eastern seas. With what steadiness of eye, with what firmness of foot, 
with what calmness of breast he met the billows and saw the wrecks ! 
God help the man ! Assailed 'in the halls of legislation as sequestering 
the funds of his own beloved University to increase his private fortune, 
and walking amidst the fires of a legislative inquisition ; despoiled by 
his trusted agent to the peril of a portion of the endowment of the Uni- 
versity which his honor and his fortune were pledged before God and 
man to keep sacredly secure, and dragged before the courts to be com- 
pelled to pay for being betrayed and defrauded by his unworthy agent; 
and then, in the midst of his contest with these calumnies and treach- 
eries, — enough to send any ordinary man to his bed and to his grave, 
struck with the financial hurricane, darkening the heavens for days and 
nights, sending upon the rocks and to the bottom the heaviest freighted 
-as well as the lightest crafts, — he struggled, he wrestled, he gathered 
such fragments as he could amidst the wrecks, and calmly looked 
.around him, hoping, believing that whatever else was lost, the Univer- 
.sity was safe. But these labors of desperation were too much for mor- 
tal maji to endure. That frame of knitted steel, whose muscles were 
woven so compactly clearing the beech forests of De Ruyter in boy- 
hood, and drilling the everlasting rock at Fall Creek in manhood, and 
building telegraph lines through untrodden forests, and miry swamps, 

* Since this address was delivered, the referee, to whom the case was referred, 
decided that a moiety of what was claimed by the plaintiff should be paid by the 
University. The claim was for $134,000. The amount awarded was $66,000. 



24 ■ Memorial Address. 

and floods of waters, could bear the burden and endure the exposure no 
longer. The silver cord was loosed, the golden bowl was broken ; and 
his life ebbed away gently and quietly through the months of summer^ 
as the creeks diminished in their channels, till the autumn came; and 
then, with forgiveness for all, God took him ! In due time, amidst 
mourning thousands, we laid his body in the tomb, to await its shrine 
under the shadow of his beloved University. 

Such were the labors, the difficulties, the immense benefactions, 
the perils of fortune of ]Mr. Cornell during the last eight years of his 
life; such were the imperative demands upon his time, his strength, his 
resources; such were the constant, the enormous drafts upon his vigil- 
ance, his vitality, his endurance since the day on which this Hall was 
dedicated and his purpose of future benefactions expressed. What 
time had he to give to a consideration of its objects ? What strength ? 
What funds ? Trustees of Cornell Library Association, if we have ever 
uttered a murmur that the purpose was delayed, let us bow our heads in 
penitence in the presence of there heroic lalo:s and endurances. Citi- ^ 
zens of Ithaca, if a word of complaint has escaped the lips of any one 
of you, that he who had already done so much for you, did not do 
more, that his work was not equal to his wish, stand abashed at your 
ingratitude and temerity before the gigantic labors, the heroic endurance 
and princely benefactions which shortened a vigorous life and even haz- 
arded a comfortable competency for his own old age and home. He 
can do but one thing more for us. The ardor of his desire must kindle 
our aspirations ; the abundance of his bounty, though not equal to his 
intent, should inflame our ambition. Men and women of wealth of 
Ithaca, of Tompkins County, for this Library is for all its citizens, come 
to the rescue ; rise to the grandeur and needs of the occasion, and of 
the memory and noble deeds of our great benefactor, and complete 
what death, hastened in your service, prevented his finishing. Ten, fif- 
teen, twenty of you, whom God has blessed with abundance, raise ten 
thousand doflars as a permanent fund for the use of the Library, which 
will do what Mr. Cornell proposed to do not only for twelve years, but 
for all coming time ; and let it be called " The Memorial Fund of the 
Cornell Libraiy Association r Men and women of princely souls, I see 
your faces beam responsive to the propriety and practicability of this 



Ezra Cornell. 25: 

suggestion. O would that my lips were persuasion and my words con- 
viction that I might crystallize your assent into action, and your action 
into achievement. I would kneel before you, nay, I would prostrate 
myself at your feet, and would implore you by the love you bear to him, 
by your admiration for his labors which brought him martyrdom, by 
your gratitude for his munificent benefactions to the town, to crown 
your love, your admiration, your gratitude with this grand, this spon- 
taneous act. Would that that vacant chair was vocal ! Would that 
those closed lips would break their silence ! Would that that voiceless 
tongue would speak for me ! Rouse yourselves ! up, fellow citizens, and 
do it ; and not only will every heart in that bereaved household leap for 
joy, but the blessing of coming generations, shall keep fresh your mem- 
ories and hallow your graves ! 

Such, fellow citizens, is a glimpse of the prominent points in the Life 
of our model citizen, the Founder of our Library and of our University,, 
leader or helper in all the enterprises which have increased the business 
and the wealth of the town and its vicinage. As in the dawn of the 
morning the sky glows, and here and there, in the unveiling landscape, 
the hill-tops kindle in the sun-beams, while all the fields and valleys, 
and orchards, and villages, and homes, are but dimly discovered in the 
shadows; so have I feebly and in scantiest outline sketched some of 
the prominent events in the life of Ezra Cornell. But as at last the sun 
mounts his imperial throne in mid-heaven, and floods all the valleys 
with light, and covers all the house-roofs with glory, and fills the air of 
all the fields with the fragrant incense of the clover-blossoms ; and the 
landscape, from ravine to hill-top, is all aglow with light and enchanting 
with beauty; so will increasing years and memories set before you in 
golden glories the fullness and richness of the life and labors of him 
whose name shall be a synonym of integrity and beneficence while the 
world stands. 

IT 

Gentlemen of the University and citizens of Ithaca, as the will of God 
was revealed to the children of Israel by the illumination of the pre- 
cious stones in the breastplate of the High Priest, so the character 
of our Founder and fellow citizen shines through the precious fragments 
of his life which I have gathered up. He was born to a life of labor^ 



26 ' Memorial Address. 

and he accepted his mheritance with gratitude, and never hesitated at 
the arduousness of any undertaking. All useful labor was honorable in 
his sight, and he did what his hand found to do with his might, and for 
what his labor would bring. He did not refuse work because it was 
not to his taste, nor because the price was not equal to his desire. 
Labor was better than idleness, at anything and at any price. He was 
never seen lounging with the indolent, nor murmuring with the petu- 
lant. Industry is a virtue, and he won its highest prizes. He might 
be slashing the birch forests of De Ruyter to turn the wilderness into a 
wheat field, or scoring and hewing timber for dwellings or mills; or 
.splitting, and digging, and hewing rocks for dams and culverts ; or drill- 
ing tunnels, or draining marshes, or setting telegraph poles, or enacting 
statutes in the Senate chamber of the State, or, above all, be spending 
sleepless nights and laborious days, laying deep, and broad, and sure, 
the foundations of his beloved University — everywhere he was a 
worker. He literally leaped at the beckoning of laboj ; and the indus- 
trious young man was to him a prince, and honored as such. So high 
a value did he set upon manual labor, or a capacity for it, in all, that it 
was his earnest desire to make it a part, if not an essential part, of edu- 
•cation in the University. It is no disparagement of the general sound- 
ness of Mr. CornelPs broad practical judgment that it was found incom- 
patible with the working of a University such as he wished to found. 
But it is a tribute. of no ordinary value to the essential worth and dig- 
nity of labor. 

Again, the work of our founder and citizen was thoroughly done. He 
was marked not only by doing what he did with his might, but thor- 
oughly. He built for all time, whether he built a wall, erected a dam, 
constructed a house, or founded a University. He hated, he loathed, 
he detested shams with all the intensity of his strong nature. He be- 
lieved that one's works, as well as one's words, represented character, 
nay even more perfectly. And not that only, he believed that one's 
work acted back upon and moulded character and life into its own 
form. He who was so foolish as to make a sham became a sham ; he 
who built a lie became a lie. No man could work imperfectly, incor- 
rectly. No man could make deformities without becoming a deformity 
himself. He, therefore, not only builded himself into his work, " firm 



Ezra Cornell. 2/ 

and true," but his work builded itself anew with him, forming a char- 
acter as " firm and true " as the walls of rock he built. 

Though born and educated in a conservative society, he was emi- 
nently a progressive man in both his opinions and methods. He was 
always looking for, and warmly welcoming, all improvements in 
methods and implements of agriculture and mechanics, and invested 
his scant competency in 1840 in a new patent for a plow. He had a 
word of sympathy for inventors when pecuniary aid could not be fur- 
nished. He did not believe that the best in anything had yet been 
realized, and he was pressing forward to the things which were before, 
rather than resting in the attainments of the present. He faced want 
for himself and for those dearest to him rather than surrender an under- 
taking in which he had faith, and his faith was that which removes 
mountains. This was a prominent trait in his character. He had an 
inward sympathy with future events like the old prophets, and he 
pressed on to their attainment as if they were possessions not expect- 
ancies. Hence he was always a friend, if not a leader, in moral and 
social reforms. He was both a temperate and a temperance man. He 
regretted most deeply that his fellow citizens thought it necessary to 
open so many places where apprenticeship for crime was served, and 
whose graduates fill our jails and penitentiaries ; and both his voice and 
purse were given for their suppression. And when it became evident that 
the question whether freedom or slavery should be national must be an- 
swered, he did not hesitate which side to choose, but gave himself unre- 
servedly to the cause of human rights. He never, however, was a pol- 
itician. He always was a patriot. He spurned the ignorant caucus. 
He revered the enlightened conscience. More easily could you har- 
ness a lion to your drag than him to any party machinery. 

This faith, this assurance, gave him that calmness, that equanimity, 
which were so eminently characteristic of Mr. Cornell. I do not say 
wholly, for it was in part an inheritance, the acquisition of generations 
of Friends, of whom equanimity and sobriety of deportment are most 
eminent traits. He could not be surprised and unbalanced. When he 
read the calumnious attack made upon his integrity in the Assembly, 
not a muscle of his face moved, not the smallest capillary of the skin 
changed its color. He calmly, in liis usual deliberate tone, simply said, 



28 Memorial Address. 

" Well, time will set things right, show these charges false ; I can wait." 
This imperturbability and gravity of character was penetrated by a rich 
vein of humor, which sparkled at times in forms as caustic or as deli- 
cate as they were unexpected. Just as through the solid compactness 
of the rock there glides and glints the elusive vein of silver. 

The characteristic remark just quoted gives us a glimpse of another 
trait of Mr. Cornell's character. He cherished malice., hostility., to none. 
He forgave, if he could not forget, as abundantly and as freely as he 
was betrayed and maligned. Kindness or silence was on his lips. His 
own integrity was so pure and pervading that it was hard for him to be- 
lieve that another who had the form and features of a man could be a 
hypocrite and a knave. Hence he was often a sufferer. His reliance 
upon the uprightness of others cost him everything but regret that he 
thought well of his fellow men, that he did not live every hour as if 
among thieves. 

Thoroughly unselfish was he. In an eminently significant sense he 
sought not his own. Whatever advantage might accrue to him through 
the work he was doing or the enterprise he was undertaking, his heart 
was in the work^ in the enterprise, not in the procee'^s., the profits. He 
loved the machine more than the money it coined. He admired a 
noble work; he loved what was well done. He enjoyed the construc- 
tion, whether profitable to him or not. " That new house of mine is a 
piece of folly," he said ; and then added, " No, I think our mechanics 
here will be benefited by having before them an example of perfect 
work." And that was his pride about it; not that it was /^/V house, 
but a house, a thorough, honest piece of work, worthy of admiration. 
He loved to do things for their own sake. How he loved to walk over 
the well-tilled field, admire the choice herds and flocks, and view the 
permanent fences. And when questions of great moment and involv- 
ing great expense came before him respecting enterprises which he had 
undertaken, he was not anxious how the decision would affect his pri- 
vate interests and estate, but how the enterprise would be promoted or 
injured by it. And, having learned this, his vote was for the enterprise, 
the public good, and not for private pelf 

I need not say to you that Mr. Cornell's integrity was as pervasive 
as his business and as constant as his breath. As gravity pervades and 



Ezra Cornell. 29 

holds every atom of matter in the universe, in blazing suns, and float- 
ing motes, not a star in the firmament escaping its power, not a pebble 
in the ocean eluding its embrace, shaping the nebula in the infinite 
abyss and the vapor-scarf on the hill-side ; so integrity filled, pervaded, 
shaped, guided, illustrated Mr. Cornell's whole life, in thought, word, 
work, from lowliest service to highest enterprise. 

If in any degree at times he was behind the clock in meeting his 
•obligations, it was not because he did not feel them and acknowledge 
them, but because he had so heaped his burdened shoulders, that no 
human strength would enable him to overtake them. Accustomed 
from small beginnings to attend personally to all his affairs, he did not 
understand nor realize the necessity of imposing upon others the man- 
agement of less important portions of his business when it became so 
vast. 

I need not remind you that he was '^y.i.y -reliant^ firm in his purpose. 
In firmness he was a rock, unimpressible, immovable. In sympathy he 
was a brook, turned from its course by every opposition and refreshing 
all the more abundantly by its meanderings. The early struggle for 
competency, the necessity thrown upon him to fight his own battles 
with poverty, and rely upon his own mental and moral and physical re- 
sources for success, would naturally form in him a habit of not seeking 
nor depending upon the wisdom of others. It is not, therefore, at all 
surprising that this most excellent virtue should have somewhat over- 
topped its fellows, and rather have attracted the admiration of others 
by the refreshing springs which gushed from beneath its icy summit, 
than by the blinding glare of the sunbeams which it reflected. Firm- 
ness is not so common a trait of character as not to attract notice, and 
it is never adversely criticised except when it is planted in our path. 
Mr. Cornell was open to argument and conviction, and it is by no 
means certain that he was not often right when he did not yield to our 
wishes and judgments. When he had deliberately reached a conclu- 
sion he acted upon it in the face of the world. He was a just man and 
tenacious of his purpose, of a solid judgment, unshaken by the ardor or 
commands of his associates, or the frown of an imperious public. 

Justum ac tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium, 



30 Memorial A ddress. 

Non vultus instantis tyranni 
Mente quatit solida. 

To crown all, and glorify all, Mr. Cornell was a man of largest gen- 
erosity. He loved to do good supremely ; not only did his beneficence 
flow in majestic rivers, under the open heavens, but it crept in refresh- 
ing streams among hidden rocks, in hidden channels, making thousands 
of wastes verdant, thousands of hearts glad. His wealth was great. 
He felt the great responsibility of his stewardship. He would do the 
best and worthiest thing. He would found institutions which would, 
be " useful in increasing the knowledge and elevating the moral and 
religious standard of the people." And he did it while he lived, that he 
might enjoy the luxury of doing it, and his eyes be satisfied with seeing 
its blessedness, and his ears be rejoiced at hearing its benedictions. 
And on them he invoked the blessing of God, for in God he trusted. 

After he had escaped through the gates of death from the reproaches 
of mankind, he would not require his executors to erect a monument of 
folly and bigotry like Girard, the doors of whose marble halls are 
opened to an oath but closed to a prayer, and whose charter not only 
disfranchises from its Board of Government, but forbids to pass its 
doors, all Christian ministers forever more. Thus under the name of 
holy charity, heaping contempt, derision, infamy, as far as in his power, 
upon a specified class of our fellow citizens. If such an outrage had 
been perpetrated upon any other class, scavenger or stevedore, to be 
continued through. all time, a tremor of disgust would have run through 
the country, and the millions offered to purchase the insult would have 
been tossed back into the lap or the grave of the giver, amidst the exe- 
crations of a whole nation. 

Mr. Cornell's religion was not one of the lips, but of the heart and 
of the life. He was educated from childhood to silence upon the most 
sacred of subjects, and in mature years both his judgment and taste ap- 
proved his early instruction. His hand was open to aid in the erection 
of our places of worship, and his heart sympathized with their prosperity, 
though he did not accept many of their teachings, nor personally often 
unite in their services. He felt that religion was a demand of man's 
nature, and that even when imperfectly administered or understood 
was the richer blessing. He read the Savior's requirement of his disci- 



Ezra Cornell. 31 

pies, " If ye love me, keep my commandments," and who was more 
obedient ? He read the address of the judge at the great assize, " Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me," and how he hastened to help the helpless and 
comfort the sad ! He read, " Not every one that saith unto me Lord^ 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the 
will of my Father who is in heaven," and how earnestly he gave him- 
self to the work ! His heart was a temple and its depths a shrine, 
though no voice nor sound was heard from his lips. His daily life was 
to him worship ; his deeds of charity were to him gratitude ; the active 
use of all his powers of body, and mind, and heart in the work which 
God had given him to do was to him consecration. To him obedience 
was the best confession. 

Such is the barest outline of the life and character of Ezra Cor- 
nell, and if such is only its outline, what must have been its complete- 
ness. " He was the noblest man God ever made," exclaimed one who 
knew him intimately, and had seen him in all his sorest struggles with 
slanderous imputations, and foul betrayal, and financial scorms, as the 
tears rolled down his cheeks and his lips quivered, and his whole body 
trembled. So felt we all. "The noblest man ! " and as a man he was 
human and subject to human weaknesses and infirmities. If he ever 
wronged any one, he was grieved. If he saw his mistake, he corrected 
it. Our rules and methods are not unchangeable but experimental, he 
once said to me when I objected to a requirement in the University, 
which I knew was his favorite. 

No, fellow citizens, noble as he was, he was still one of us, and we 
may aspire to attain like nobility. This is the great, the inspiring lesson 
of his life. His character, not his wealth, made him great. His wealth 
only enabled him to reveal the greatness of his character. He made 
wealth worth, and riches righteousness. He redeemed money-getting 
from greed, and its use from prodigality and vanity. His wealth served 
him ; he never became its servant. The poorest need not despair, for 
he was one of them and attained. The richest need not be proud, for 
he was one of them and was humble. And whenever we would kindle 
anew our own aspirations after true manhood, whenever we would in- 
spire in our children a supreme love of excellence, we will visit the 



32 Memorial Address. 

grave, we will tell them the story of the life, and show them the monu- 
ments .of the munificence of our model citizen, our true nobleman, 
Ezra Cornell. 



FOUNDER'S HYMN. 



The '* Chimes " are still. Alone, 

As falls the Year's last leaf, 
The Great Bell's monotone 

Slow hymns our helpless grief. 
Bountiful heart ! — bountiful hand ! 

Bountiful heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder! — O ! Soul so grand! 
Farewell, Cornell! — Farewell! 

* From Slander's driving sleet, 
From Envy's pitiless rain, 
At rest, the aching feet ! — 
At rest, the weary brain ! 
Laboring heart ! — laboring hand ! — 

Laboring heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — O ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell, Cornell ! — Farewell ! 

So calm, and grave, and still, 

Men thought his silence, pride ; 
Nor guessed the truth, until 
Death told it — as he died. 
Lowly of heart ! — lowly of hand ! — 

Lowly of heart and hand! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — O ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell, Cornell ! — Farewell ! 

"True," as the steel to star: 
With eye whose lifted lid 
Let in all Truth — though far 
In clouds and darkness hid. 



34 Founder s Hymn. 



Confident heart ! — confident hand ! 

Confident heart and hand ! K 

O ! Father and Founder ! — O ! Soul so grand ! 

Farewell, Cornell ! — Farewell ! 

*' Firm," as the oak's tough grain, 
Yet pliant to the prayer 
Of Poverty, or Pain, 
As leaf to troubled air. 
Kindliest heart ! — kindliest hand ! 

Kindliest heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell, Cornell! — Farewell! 

Untaught, — and yet he drew 

Best learning out of life. 
More than the Scholars knew. 
With all their toil and strife, • 
Conquering heart ! — conquering hand ! 

Conquering heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — O ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell, Cornell! — Farewell! 

The spires that crown the hill. 

To plainest Labor free, 
Where all may win who will, — 
His Monument shall be ! 
Generous heart! — generous hand! 

Generous heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — O ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell ! Cornell ! — Farewell ! 

Brave, kindly heart, adieu ! 

But with us live alway 
The patient face we knew, 
And this Memorial Day. 
Bountiful heart ! — bountiful hand ! 

Bountiful heart and hand ! 
O ! Father and Founder ! — ! Soul so grand ! 
Farewell ! Cornell ! — Farewell ! 



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